Dev Diary: 20 March

Welcome to the Fightlings Dev Diaries, which are our way of peeling ourselves away from our screens and offering a glimpse into our game development process. This week's entry spotlights Floris, our resident artist, graphic designer, and Just Dance champion:

How did you get into creating art for games?

I always loved drawing and video games. From these early passions I came to graphic design, and from there becoming a game artist was the next natural step.

Fightlings has a very unique art style. What is your approach to creating creatures and other artwork for the game?

We wanted to create a universe that was connected to ours, but was also very much its own. We were inspired by the way different cultures view reality: for example, Native American and African tribal imagery were a great source for some of our mystical and shamanic designs.

What are some of the challenges you've faced in creating artwork for Fightlings?

Each creature belongs to a general faction and a specific clan within that faction: for example, a creature will be part of the Energy (Red) faction and the Fire clan. To create something uniform that works within the overall game universe, as well as within the individual factions, was particularly challenging. We also wanted to make sure the figures would appeal to a worldwide audience. It's particularly tricky to work out an art style that can be popular in both Asia and Europe, for example.

F.R.I.H.O.R.S.T., an exotic drinking game... most of the time no one remembers who won or lost.

What is a typical day working on Fightlings like?

Coffee, our morning gathering (I guess it's called a "meeting"), and then we get down to business. Lots of things come up spontaneously and need to be finished the same day. When a graphic is ready, I upload it and look at it in-game. If everything sits right and looks good, the producer gives it his okay and I move to the next task. In between there's coffee, coke, apples, more coffee... and also a lot of fun

What is your approach to designing creatures for Fightlings?

We start with a general task like "Red - Set 5", and then come up with a specific theme like "Love". When the theme is set, we start researching ideas for its visualization. At the same time, we try to keep our ideas fresh with metaphors or contradictions, to create new and exciting creatures. So our "Love" set ended up being more about deadly seduction and treacherous assassins... so not entirely romantic

How has the artwork of Fightlings evolved over the past year?

It started out very "cuddly", with a fairly child-like look. As time went on, our creatures became stronger, and had to have a more powerful look. So our current creatures have become far more epic than the "cute" things we started with.

What sort of projects would you like to work on in the future?

I hope that Fightlings will be successful enough in the future that we can keep working on it. I would also be happy to take on other projects that have a similar game mechanics. And maybe someday to take on an actual Pokemon title... that would be great

What do you see as the future for mobile games and apps?

The Game Boy already showed that people will play anywhere, anytime. And today we're freer than ever to meet up and play with friends online, which is fantastic. The hardware gets better and better every year and I think we're nowhere near the limit of our possibilities.

What are you playing right now?

At the moment I'm playing Final Fantasy XV and Pokemon Moon... and of course, Fightlings every day!

What are some of your favorite recent games?

Witcher 3 totally blew me away. Especially the DLC!

If you could be one character from a videogame, who would you be?

Red from Pokemon. He's the best man... well, boy...

What's the strangest place you've ever played a mobile game?

In the bathroom at Berghain... that lasted awhile

What's your earliest videogame memory?

I as a child with my father at his ancient computer, we'd always play "Corridor 7" floppy disk... those were the days

What game are you best at? What game are you worst at?

No one beats me at Tetris .... but everyone beats me at Fifa.

What do you like most about living in Berlin?

Definitely the BVG. No problems with it whatsoever... yep, definitely none...